Posts Tagged ‘half-marathon’

Pikermi Mucho

I don’t hang with the cool kids, so it came as a surprise to me to learn that some of them are calling the half-marathon the “pikermi” (pronounced “pee-KER-mee”). Of course, they have a web site and sell t-shirts. Their slogan is, “Because 13.1 miles should not be considered half of anything!”

What does pikermi mean? Well, Pikermi is small Greek town about 13.1 miles from Marathon on the road to Athens. What is it known for? Well, uh, nothing really except being halfway between Marathon and Athens.

Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Besides, if Pheidippides had stumbled into Pikermi crying “Nενικήκαμεν!” the Pikermites would have said, “Thanks for the news, but you’ve got another 13.1 to go, dude.”

I think we should adapt one of Nitmos’ suggestions: the triskaidekathon. Now that’s Greek to me!

Sacramento Cowtown Half-Marathon Race Report

I really had no business running a half-marathon yesterday. I’ve run a total of 7 pain-filled miles over the last two weeks. But I’m a stubborn bastard, and after stupidly registering for a bunch of races in advance, I simply forced myself to run them. I toyed with the idea of running the 5k, but I figured it would hurt just as bad for less payoff. So I went for it.

The Lovely Mrs. A. and I got to William Land Park in plenty of time (she ran the 5k – without a chip, because she just likes running. I should learn from her.) and sat in the car until about 15 minutes before start time. Except as we approached the start, I realized I really, really needed to use the latrine. So I got in the humongous line. People in front of me started to freak and bail out of the line because the race was about to start, and I was fruitlessly trying to explain to them that there was a timing mat at the start, so it didn’t much matter when the race started. There were more than 3,300 half- and full marathoners, so it was going to take awhile anyway.

I finish my business, trot out to the start area, and guess what? I’m by myself! I begin my run, and as I cross the timing mat, my friend, race director Rich Hanna, announces over the loudspeaker, “And there goes Mike Antonucci, giving the rest of the field a head start.” Awesome.

So, here I am, absolutely dead last, running behind 2,863 other half-marathoners. It was a weird and wonderful experience. If you’ve never done it, you should try it, but not in a race in which you hope to PR. It’s a whole different scene back there. For one thing, there’s a LOT of chatter going on. It’s more like a party than a race. People spread out and there isn’t much jockeying for position. I tried not to waste energy dodging people, but when they’re strolling nine abreast, having a great old time, well, you’ve got to work around them.

In the first mile I passed people right and left, and since the race had pace leaders, I soon caught up to the 2:30 leader, then the 2:20 leader. At mile 2 I caught the 2:15 group. It was great fun speeding by everyone but I realized I was eventually going to find my peers and then run an actual race.

Mile 1 – 9:13
Mile 2 – 8:52
Mile 3-5 – 26:34 (8:51 avg.)

I found a pretty steady pace, and things were going much better than I had anticipated.

Mile 6 – 8:44
Mile 7 – 8:50
Mile 8 – 8:52

The best part of the day was hitting the turnaround point and while running the next stretch, seeing a LONG, LONG line of people, all of whom I had passed to get to where I was. It made me feel terrific even though I was running a very sub-par race.

Mile 9 – 8:51
Mile 10 – 9:09

All good things must come to an end, and while my leg held up pretty well throughout, my poor conditioning began to take a toll. I took two three-minute walk breaks on the home stretch.

Mile 11 – 10:45
Mile 12 – 10:32
Mile 13 – 9:23
.1 – 1:03

I thought I had an outside chance at breaking two hours, but I couldn’t move them any faster. I was struggling at the finish, but got a good laugh when the race announcer called my name over the PA system, then added, “That’s the guy who gave everyone the head start. He must have passed a lot of people.”

Finish – 2:00:50
986th out of 2,864
53rd of 111 in 50-54 age group

They loaded us down with food, then gave us the coveted Cowtown cowbell medal (my fourth one). I located the Lovely Mrs. A. and she led me over to the Fleet Feet tent, where I sat and chowed down. After about a half-hour, I had some trouble getting up, then I limped my way back to the car. I iced the leg for a long time, but this morning it hurts to put any weight on it.

So I’ve managed to go more than a month and run four races in three weeks on a bad leg, but the silliness must stop. I’m out of commission until this gets better. It puts my targeted marathon in the extremely unlikely category, but I’m used to that. In the meantime, I can soothe myself with thoughts of those 1,879 people I passed.

Valerie Bertinelli Runs a Half

She completed the Napa-to-Sonoma Wine Country Half-Marathon in a respectable 2:12:19. Some people are less than thrilled about it, but here at Running Is Funny we have her exclusive finish line photo!

Oops, that’s not it. Here it is!

Damn, that’s not it, either. Maybe this one…

Crap. I’ll have to get back to you.

UPDATE: Do you ever get this many photos when you run a half?

Official Results

Chip time – 1:56:56

1071st out of 3603 finishers (29.7 percentile)

60th out of 130 in age group (46.2 percentile)

Blue Diamond was a sponsor of the race, so I’ve got six packs of different-flavored almonds to munch on for the rest of the week.

It’s funny how your expectations change. I remember the first time I broke two hours in a half-marathon – it was the America’s Finest City Half-Marathon in San Diego in 2005. I ran a 1:57:12 and I was so happy I told everybody. Three and a half years later, I’ve beaten that time despite a late-race meltdown and all I can think about is what I did wrong.

A Tale of Two Races: Shamrock’n Half-Marathon Report

I’ve never had a race quite like this one before, even though today’s Shamrock’n Half-Marathon was my 11th half-marathon. It was wonderful and awful, greatly encouraging and terribly disappointing, well-executed and gone horribly astray, all in the same race.

I made myself a huge bowl of gemelli bolognese last night, and went to bed early. The race didn’t start until 8 a.m. at Raley Field, the home of our minor league baseball team, but they were expecting more than 4,000 runners and there are only two roads that lead to the stadium. I got up at 5 a.m., went through my usual routine, had coffee plus a bagel with peanut butter, and off I went.

I got there around 6:30, and snoozed in the car until 7:30. I ate a small box of raisins, and I was carrying a 24 ounce bottle of diluted Gatorade and a single Power Gel for the race. I thought I was pretty well fueled, but those who have been reading me for a while will notice I didn’t have any “bad” sugars. Looked like I had plenty of carbs in the tank, though.

The race started on time and though the sky was overcast and threatening, the temperature was perfect and it did not rain. The organizers provided pacers for every 10 minutes from 1:30 to 2:30. I went out slow and steady, and had the 1:50 guy in my sights. I figured anything between 1:49 and 1:52 was right about where I should be at this stage.

The course was mostly flat, and despite all the turns, there were only a couple that were problematic. A hairpin turn with a large field  can be pretty dangerous if you’re not careful. I nearly got bowled over by a guy in a kilt.

To make a long story a little shorter, I hit mile 9 at 1:15:43 – a pace of 8:24. That pace was better than any of the long training runs I did for the race. Through the entire distance, I felt good, with no problems at all. It looked like I had a sub-1:50 in the bag.

“Hitting the wall” means you have depleted your energy, and of course I’ve hit the wall before, but I always got that “low fuel” light first, where my pace deteriorates over a couple of miles before falling apart. No warning this time. I went from feeling fine to losing all desire to run in the space of a half-mile.

I had been sipping my Gatorade every mile, and took my Power Gel at mile 7, but today it didn’t make a bit of difference. I slowed considerably, and despite the help from a training partner trying to urge me on, I started walking. For the last four miles, I would walk for two minutes, run until I couldn’t stand it anymore, then repeat the cycle.

It helped that Raley Field came into view about 3/4-mile from the end, so I sucked it up and kept running. My coach spotted me about 1/4 mile from the end and asked, “How are you feeling?” I shouted, “Awful!” and laughed. The final stretch of the race brings you into the stadium through an opening in the center field fence, and you run around the warning track down the third base side, while they show you on the Jumbotron. It’s pretty cool.

No official time yet, but I stopped my watch at 1:57:01 – an average 8:55 pace, which isn’t awful, but it means it took me 41:18 to cover that last 4.1 miles – a 10:04 pace. How’s that for positive splits?

I was more bummed running the last few miles than I was afterwards. The ammonia stink made it obvious I was in ketosis, despite all the food, gel and Gatorade. I felt a lot better once I had a couple of Fig Newtons in me. It was pretty easy to put it in perspective. Clearly, I wasn’t prepared to run a half-marathon, and I’m still wrestling with whether I should eat what actually works, or what’s supposed to work, and how much. Fueling is a big problem for me.

At the same time, I ran a perfectly fine nine miles, and if the race had ended there, or even at 10 miles, I would have been thrilled with how it turned out.

I’ve got another half-marathon scheduled in six weeks, but maybe I should concentrate on shorter distances until I can comfortably run my target pace. Next up is the Nutrition Fuels Fitness 10k in two weeks. How timely.

If You Want to Win, Stay Away From This Race

The Ageo City Half Marathon boasted 412 runners who finished under 1:10.